It was agreed by various signatories to the COP26 accord that gas is to be used as a transition fuel while building renewables to end the use of fossil fuels, particularly coal, by 2050.

Since then, the war in Ukraine and the inevitable shutting down and subsequent damage to the Nord stream pipelines from Russia means our only reliable sources of natural gas in the short term is from existing UK oil and gas wells, from a pipeline from Norway, and from whatever amounts of Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) that the USA under Democrat rule is willing to sell to the UK and Europe. 

Gas is not a transition fuel it is a permanent fuel, because it will always be required. Like coal powered stations they are capable of being ramped up and down to cope with the 10GW variation of UK grid demand between summer day and night, and the 20GW variation between winter day and night. It can also compensate for the 10GW variation caused by the intermittency of wind and solar, neither of which are available on-demand.

There is no large-scale renewable energy technology that can cope with the demand variation, nor is it likely to exist in the foreseeable future. It is just the Magic Renewable Generator of the Net Zero Cult in the same way as Labour had a Magic Money Tree.

The more wind and solar farms installed reduces the overall use of gas but does nothing to overcome the demand variation. It just makes gas fuelled energy less efficient, because the generators are running below maximum for more of the time and costs a fortune in renewable infrastructure and subsidies forcing up consumer bills.

Our shiny new Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, at his first PMQ’s on Wednesday 26^th October answered a question about the fracking moratorium put by Caroline Lucas, our one and only Green MP, by saying his government fully supports the manifesto pledge of Boris Johnson to maintain the fracking ban. This is the reverse of what he stated while campaigning against Liz Truss for the leadership of the party.

The UK Independence Party deplores this act of self-harm against the people of these nations and urges this government to start putting people before policy and stop pursuing a policy of Net Zero for which there is no mandate.

Antony Nailer

UK Independence Party - Spokesman for Energy